Digital Media Marketing: A beginner’s guide to display advertising

Comment

By Kevin Dunn Propel Marketing

Redwood Falls Gazette

By Kevin Dunn Propel Marketing

Posted Apr. 25, 2014 at 9:48 AM

By Kevin Dunn Propel Marketing

Posted Apr. 25, 2014 at 9:48 AM

Display advertising, which you may recognize as the banner advertisements at the top or side of your favorite websites, can be an incredibly effective tool to work into your current digital marketing mix.

One of the more strategic and exciting aspects of display advertising is the ability to target specific audience segments and demographics. Male teenage baseball fans in New England? Mothers from Ohio with interests in gardening? Understand your audience and reach them with your campaign.

2. Create an engaging CTA

As with all marketing strategies, your call to action is an integral piece of display advertising. How will you invite the user/viewer to your website? A concise, engaging CTA will turn impressions into web traffic.

3. Use dynamic landing pages

A landing page (as the name suggests) is the page or subpage of your website that users come to after clicking on your display ad. Itís important to not just link to your homepage but rather direct the user to the exact location referenced in the ad. Is there a particular action they can take (Free Estimate!) or a promotion they can take advantage of (Buy One, Get One!)? If so, it is beneficial to have users land on the appropriate page where they can take action on the offer/service advertised.

4. Donít ignore mobile market

It's important to ensure mobile compatibility with your display ads - almost 50% of internet consumers use their mobile device as their primary tool for surfing the web! As this segment continues to grow, make sure your ad campaign caters to this audience. Include mobile-specific ad sizes and you wonít be missing out on this significant audience.

5. Keep the file size low

Quality is key, and maintaining and running an appropriately-sized file will ensure cleaner, higher-resolution ads. Too large of a file and your ads will appear low-quality, low-resolution (blurry), and will take longer to load. Do not hurt your chances and negatively impact your campaign - run under the recommended file size.

6. Optimize (A/B Test)

Experimentation is important - it can be hard to predict exactly what motivates your audience to click. Rather than just running one version of your ad (and anticipating success), run two or three different ads. Change the call to action, the message, or the color-scheme. With multiple ads running in your campaign, you can see exactly what messaging brings users to your website - allowing you to optimize your budget around what you see works.

7. Implement a retargeting pixel

An additional element of display advertising is ďretarget advertisingĒ. By placing a specific cookie/code on your website, your advertisements will display to users who have previously visited your website. The familiarity and interest in your brand is already there - now it's time to bring them back to your site to convert into a customer.

Page 2 of 2 - 8. Think Bigger (with a larger marketing strategy)

While display advertising proves to be effective, your marketing plan should not begin and end with display ads. Use them to reinforce your brand and boost your top products or services. It can be helpful to maintain consistent imagery around all marketing efforts. Your logo, your slogan, your colors - market them across multiple channels to maximize success.

9. Look beyond the click-through

The click-through rate (CTR) of your ad, while important, shows at a high level the general performance of your campaign. However, this is not the only metric that measures success. Tracking conversions from the campaign help understand the direct influence on your business. How many people signed up for your mailing list or requested more information on your website?

Impressions themselves also provide a long-term benefit as you increase exposure, familiarity, and recognition with your targeted audience.

10. Use display ads

The only sure-fire way to maximize the benefits of display advertising is to run a display ad campaign! You cannot build brand awareness, nurture prospects, increase web traffic, and drive sales through display ads without running your own online banner ads.

Big or small, urban or rural, product or service - display advertising has proven to be an effective tool to work into any digital marketing strategy.

Propel Marketing is an online marketing company providing digital solutions to local small- and medium-sized businesses: www.propelmarketing.com.